Antti Vihavainen is the Co-founder and CEO of Helsinki-based Puro.earth, a leading crediting platform and registry for engineered carbon removal. In 2021, NASDAQ acquired a controlling stake in Puro, helping further establish its credibility in the marketplace. Puro is actively offering engineered carbon removal credits today for a few dozen projects that primarily consist of biochar and bio-construction initiatives.

In addition, Puro has an initiative called Puro Accelerate that enables buyers to purchase essentially futures credits for other forms of carbon removal that still need to produce at scale, but which Puro has deemed highly credible and likely to produce in the near term. Puro Accelerate’s projects include efforts in direct air capture, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (or BECCS) geologically stored carbon, woody biomass burial, and additional biochar projects.

Antti and Cody trace how Puro came to be, and cover the details of their current registry offerings and futures offerings. They discuss Puro's business model and how they compare to other carbon credit and offset registries. Additionally, Antti shares his thoughts on how he sees carbon removal scaling in the years to come. 

In this episode, we cover: 

• [02:46]: Antti's background and climate journey
• [04:14]: Starting Puro.earth and creating a new asset class 
• [06:29]: Puro's focus on projects with measurable atom-level carbon removal
• [07:26]: The company’s initial methodologies, including biochar, carbonated building materials, and woody elements
• [10:52]: Collaboration with NASDAQ 
• [11:56]: How Puro issues CO2 Removal Credits (CORCs)
• [14:52]: How Puro Accelerate supports emerging carbon removal technologies
• [17:34]: Risks and benefits for companies buying pre-CORCs
• [21:18]: Qualification process for pre-CORC futures credits
• [23:02]: Early demand for pre-CORCs from pioneers and future market expansion
• [25:25]: Potential for third-party innovation to address verification, payment, and capitalization bottlenecks
• [29:36]: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
• [31:41]: Speculative buying in pre-CORC space and innovations in bottleneck problems
• [34:59]: Potential for blockchain-based solutions in this space
• [37:05]: Research listings and supporting R&D for emerging technology, like enhanced rock weathering 
• [39:08]: Antti's invitation to large companies and capital deployers to engage with Puro

Get connected: 
Antti LinkedIn
Puro.earth Twitter / LinkedIn
Cody Simms Twitter / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

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Episode recorded on Jun 14, 2023 (Published on Jul 31, 2023)

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant